Cinema Paradiso (Director's Cut) [DVD]

If you love the Cinema and Film give this a go. You will not regret it

If Nuovo Cinema Paradiso isn't one of your favourite films, you probably haven't seen it.With the Paradiso serving as the focal point for a small Sicilian village, its changing sense of community and values beautifully realised and mirrored through the changing cinematic trends, few modern films have so many wonderful moments - the village priest censoring movies with his hand bell ever at the ready; a villager asking another what a rolling title says only to find out that he's illiterate too; the young Toto acting out a film while he holds a discarded strip of celluloid to the light; that great final montage... the list could go on for ages.Still a deeply emotional experience, some of the film's most moving moments are its most understated, such as the young Toto editing out a newsreel reference to war dead in Russia to save his mother's feelings or the sadness in Alfredo's face as he watches the villagers in the square marvel at the film he shows on a townhouse wall.But the version that won its way into the hearts of millions of filmgoers and critics alike in 1990 was not the original film. Originally called Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, it made its bow in Italy at 156-minutes to appalling reviews and bad business before being cut by half an hour for the foreign markets and taking the Cannes Film Festival by storm and later causing a minor storm of controversy after it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film (since then, films re-edited from their original version are no longer eligible for the award). Such was the film's success that by the mid-90's, Giuseppe Tornatore was able to not only restore the deleted footage but add other scenes he was forced to cut in a near three-hour director's cut. While some of it is merely additional shots or, in a couple of cases, redubbed dialogue, the film's last act was massively extended as the grown-up Toto (Jacques Perrin) meets his first love Elena (Brigitte Fossey, cut out of the two hour cut entirely) and learns what really happened and gets the chance to give their love story a proper ending...Is it a better film? In many ways yes, though it is a much darker, more melancholy one with more of a sense of loss and missed opportunities. The cuts had the effect of making sections of the film give in to nostalgia, which this version undercuts more adeptly. This is more about the terrible price that the love of cinema exerts - Alfredo's sight, Toto's one true love. When Salvatore returns from the village at the end of the picture, he has no-one to return to or anything to return to but a film award, the glittering prizes of work devalued as he realises he has no life but film. One of the all-time great endings, the stolen kisses at the end of the film now seem that much sadder and carry a much more real and painful sense of loss.This recent 4-disc UK boxed set from Arrow is at least the fifth time round on DVD for Giuseppe Tornatore's perennial, though if you already have it you may be able to rationalise buying it yet again on the grounds that it was worth it for the CD of Ennio Morricone's hauntingly emotional score or the extras. Containing remastered transfers of the two-hour overseas theatrical version and the superior three-hour version (both now bearing the original title Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, unlike previous issues) as well as a disc with a good documentary on Tornatore's Sicilian films, a half-hour retrospective on the making of the film featuring Phillipe Noiret and a grown-up Salvatore Cascio, a featurette on the kissing sequence, stills gallery and director's cut trailer, it's certainly the best presentation of the film to date - but with the original two-and-a-half hour version that played to disastrous business in Italy still unreleased, don't be surprised if somewhere down the line there'll be a sixth issue `ultimate edition' to get people to buy it all over again.And now Arrow have released their second Blu-ray version, which includes all the features from their 4-disc DVD set except for the CD of the score and adds an audio commentary by Giuseppe Tornatore on the shorter version. Unfortunately the new 2K scan for the theatrical version of the film is mildly disappointing - not terrible but with rather more digital noise in places than there should be in a specially sourced scan taken from the original negative. Black and white sequences from old movies shown in the Paradiso suffer particularly badly from the 'firefly effect' in parts of the frame that should be either pure black or grey, though it's nowhere near as bad as some of their earlier releases of Italian movies like Deep Red.

Cinema Paradiso is a serious movie buff's oxygen! No legitimate student of film can NOT be emotionally affected by it; no serious student of film can ever forget it!It is so many things: a tender story of friendship, a beautiful portrait of a Sicilian village community and a "love letter" to the cinema itself. As uplifting and heartwarming as the story is, it still does show that an obsessive love of something (such as films) can also result in sadness and regret: a man is able to have two "loves" in his life, but success in one of them comes at the expense of the other!There are actually two versions of this film that differ greatly: the original three hour Director's cut and the re-edited, two hour theatrical version which was the one that I saw when I first experienced this magical movie gem. I have since seen the longer version but (as is the case with Coppola's masterpiece "Apocalypse Now") the shorter version is crisper, more intense and makes the ending even more emotionally wrenching!A boy Salvatore (Toto) who grew up in a Sicilian Village returns home as a famous film director after receiving news about the death of an old childhood friend. Told in flashback, Salvatore (as an adult played by Jacques Perrin) reminiscences about his childhood and his relationship with Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), the projectionist at the Cinema Paradiso.Under the fatherly influence and guidance of Alfredo, Salvatore (played as a boy by Salvatore Cascio) falls in love with film making. Alfredo painstakingly teaches young Salvatore the skills that eventually become his "stepping stone" into the world of film making.As the retrospective story unfolds we are are witness to Salvatore as a teenager (played by (Marco Leonardi) and his tortured relationship with the beautiful Elena (Agnese Nano). As this whole endearing human story is finally revealed we are also shown the changes in cinema due to technological progress and social factors. Most of all the film illuminates a young boy's dream of leaving his little town to foray into the outside worldDivided into three sections, it is the first section that was left almost intact in the short version. It is of course primarily concerned with the relationship between young Toto and Alfredo. It is full of delightful touches, such as Toto's spellbound face as he watches the footage that will be censored by the town priest. The cinema is portrayed as almost being the centre of life in the town (Giancaldo) in which the film is mostly set.As the film moves forward several years to show Toto as a 16 year old, the wonderful cinema scenes are still present. However, it is mainly concerned with Toto's (now called Salvatore) courtship of and love for Elena, a love that is never to reach its full potential.In the final section Salvatore, now a great film director, returns to Giancaldo as a middle aged man to attend Alfredo's funeral. His reunion with the older Elena (Brigitte Fossey) and his mother and his exploration of the cobwebbed, dilapidated cinema of his youth are extremely moving. And ... as for the final scene when Salvatore opens a certain gift Alfredo left him: it never ever fails to make the skin tingle and the eyes water profusely!I am often asked why I love movies so much (and I too once looked for a definitive answer to that question); Cinema Paradiso gave me the answer! If you love movies, Cinema Paradiso will remind you why you do; if you don't love movies, it will tell you why you should!

Nothing to dislike, the film is beautiful, acting excellent, funny and moving.

Been waiting for around 3 years for this DVD to be available, finally it was. I love this film, and the music. It's a really nice story, taking a life from a child to teenager to a middle aged man - a must see!

Correspond exactement à ma demande

Sul film non credo ci sia molto da dire. Vorrei invece sottolineare che , nella versione integrale, quella che dura quasi tre ore e che è sul secondo blu ray, l'audio stereofonico del film ha i due canali in opposizione di fase, come se uno dei due diffusori avesse le polarità invertite. Essendo molto fastidioso il suono in queste condizioni, sono costretto a sentire usando la traccia DTS 5.1, riconvertita in stereo, e il problema si risolve. Ritengo comunque questa cosa abbastanza assurda. Come è possibile non fare caso a queste cose in una edizione come questa, che si vanta di riportare la versione restaurata del film ?

zalige film en dan met die muziek van morricone , kleine toto fantastisch kereltje

Seen it before and it is a wonderful movie.